Mistakes

Let's just begin with this picture of the sun breaking on the hills behind the Cordero's house in Colonia Reforma. Let's just start there. Take a breath. Enjoy the view.

Now let's make a list of all of the mistakes I've made since departing the United States of America. My friend Lu assures me these will be hilarious stories later. I am marking my calendar to check back and read them when later arrives.

1. Left my cell phone at my mom's house PURPOSELY, thinking I wouldn't be using it once I was down in Mexico. I was right, in that I can't use it as a phone. Though, it would have come in handy as, say, the place where I have stored all of the phone numbers for everyone I know.

2. Left my microphone in the bathroom in the Mexico City airport. Yes. I actually did this. Somewhere between moving from the smoke-filled waiting area and sitting at an empty gate I realized my large error. I mutter "fuck fuck fuck," in a surprisingly calm voice and walk back to the bathroom, to find it tucked away in the closet. The bathroom attendant gives me a five-minute lecture on being careless with expensive things.

3. Didn't pack the powercord for my computer. Here were the options: a) buy a new one from the ONLY mac store in town for $200, b) have my sister break into my dad's house while he is out of town and fedex me the powercord, c) take a bus to Puebla (2 hours away) and try to find another Mac store there that could sell me one for a little less money. I selected option A.

4. Got on the wrong bus to head back to the Cordero's for comida. Decided to get off when I saw signs indicating this was the direction for Mexico City.

5. Put down a deposit for an apartment that has no furniture, no stove and no fridge because I think it's just the perfect little home. Yellow paint with red trim and a porch go a long way to convince this girl! So now I find myself borrowing furniture from my ex-boyfriend (fun!) and scheming to get my friend's, cousin's husband to help me move the stuff into the house sometime in the next few days (double fun!). What was I thinking? You can't move furniture if you don't have friends, people. You just can't. Well, I guess you can if you have money. Which brings me to #6.

6. Left my ATM card inside the ATM machine at the bank on day 5 of my arrival in Oaxaca. It was one of those machines that sucks your card in until you transaction is complete. I am so accustomed to the Swipe machines that out of habit I just walked off without the card. So guess what? I can't access any of my money. They have HSBC here. Unfortunately, though, my account in the U.S. is not linked to the Mexican HSBC branch, so they can't issue me a new card here.

7. DHL sent my new ATM card to Nebraska. This is technically not my mistake. But I'm going to list it anyways. Apparently Oaxaca, Mexico shares a zip code with Prague, Nebraska. I guess nobody reads the ENTIRE address listing on a package, you know, like the part that says under country "MEXICO." So I paid my bank to charge my credit card and hand me some cash.

Clearly now that I am entering week 5 of living out of a suitcase, moving from New York to Chicago to Denver to Chicago to Oaxaca, things are getting a little foggy up top. It's a sad thing to grow dim at such a young age. But there it is. It's not so bad to make so many mistakes; this I know. Though some days, like today, the mistakes at last pushed me to cry.

One of my favorite quotes is from Samuel Beckett. "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Well folks, I am on my way to failing better, to be sure!